Greed is the engine of payment - Newspaper Kommersant No. 165 (7366) of 09/08/2022

Greed is the engine of payment - Newspaper Kommersant No. 165 (7366) of 09/08/2022



According to the Bank of Russia, in the second quarter of 2022, the volume of card-to-card transfers for the first time reached parity with the volume of cash withdrawals and card payments for goods and services. This happened not least due to the fact that the last two indicators lost not only in relative, but also in absolute terms.

In ten years, there were only two cases when both in the first and second quarters, the volumes of cash withdrawals and payments for goods and services fell simultaneously. So it was in 2020, in the context of a pandemic, the situation repeated itself in the difficult conditions of the first half of 2022.

However, with the growth of transfers from card to card, everything is not so rosy either. Until 2019, inclusive, every second quarter the indicator grew by 20% or more, and there was a significant increase in 2021 - by 19%. But in the pandemic year of 2020, growth was only 1%, in 2022 - only 4%. According to experts, in the statistics of transfers from card to card, transactions that are payment for goods and services play a significant role. Indirectly, this confirms the continued rapid growth of transfers through the FPS - by 23% in the second quarter. As a result, their share in the total volume of transfers between individuals reached 14% in the second quarter against 12% in the first.

In my opinion, this dynamic is largely due to greed. It has become commonplace to talk about the greed of bankers who profit from acquiring commissions and commissions for transfers. But here there is also the greed of employers who do not always pay “white money” to numerous guest workers, but prefer to transfer salaries from card to card, including in order not to pay taxes. And when during the pandemic, and even this spring, workers from neighboring countries went home, the growth rate of remittances slowed down.

In addition, there is the greed of retailers who do not want to share income with banks. Both during the pandemic and this year, sellers played an important role in limiting the acquiring commission. Having lost part of the planned income, banks began to massively cancel cashbacks. And then the greed of buyers came into play, which, along with the desire to earn on ultra-high rates on bank deposits, led to a decrease in the volume of payments for goods and services with cards.

However, relying on this greed now gives banks a chance to restore commission income in the segment. Thus, a number of the largest credit organizations have already announced the return of cashbacks, which should stimulate the growth of payment for goods and services. And guest workers returning from unpaid vacations will help restore the volume of card transfers. But cash withdrawals from ATMs are unlikely to change the trend - the share of these operations has been declining for more than one year and has decreased from 78% to 18% in ten years.



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